


How Ruby Rose Learned to Love her Criminal

by abbeytre3



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, so many robberies, unwilling accomplice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 15:58:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 20,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8378368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbeytre3/pseuds/abbeytre3
Summary: It started out with a dust store, and then another one, and a train, and White Fang, and Ruby Rose isn't a criminal, not really, but they're her friends too and she's sometimes there, so same thing really?
Or, Ruby tries to stop a robbery and attracts attention.





	1. This is how it starts

Weapons Monthly… already read, though, would it hurt to go through it one more time? Yes, yes it would, if she drooled over the new scythe joints one more time Yang would never let it go. She only stopped the girl the last time by a promising not to tell dad about Yang’s motorcycle ‘improvements’.

So then, Runway Fashions for the Road? She carefully flipped through it, mindful of the deceptively safe looking pages. Can take down a Grimm, supposedly, but can’t avoid a handful of papercuts. Page twelve was reached before she sighed and put it down; there was no way that these outfits were for actual fighting. Way too many studs and ribbons that could be caught on things, although… looking down at her own cape, she can’t say that her outfit is entirely practical. But! When she’s a fully-fledged huntress, it’s what all the townspeople will talk about! The beautiful _tall_ woman who could take down legions of Grimm, her cape fluttering around her as she stalks off into the night to fight again. It. Will. Be. Awesome!

_“The one I really crave, is the one that got away”_ shocked Ruby out of her fantasy. Her hand must have hit the volume while she was… thinking. Now that she’s cognizant, she realized that she was crushing the magazine too. Chuckling nervously, the magazine was carefully put in the back of the stand, in the way back, with a few volumes placed in front just for good measure.

Focused on the placement of magazines, Ruby almost didn’t see the hand coming down on her arm. Right before it made impact, she lashed out, with all the form and force her training had drilled into her, and sent a suited goon through the front window.

A… suited… goon. Why would a sui- the dust shop! Were they being robbed?!

Ruby yanked off her headphones and sprang to the front of the store, barreling headfirst into a slim wall of white. She looked up, and up an-oh shit.

A smarmy ginger tipped his bowler to her, “So what do we have here little Red? You know good goons these days are expensive, and you just send them crashing about like they’re free!”

Ruby felt a trickle of fear run down her spine before she straightened and glared back up at him. “Better them than me! You’re doing something- something illegal!”

She stepped back so that she could pull out Crescent Rose, or, at least, tried to. An arm was wrapped around her waist, keeping her just where she was. He continued talking like he didn’t even notice her struggle,

“A do-gooder! I _love_ do-gooders! They just mess up the best plans!”

His arm tightened and suddenly Ruby wasn’t a few inches away from this stranger, but pressed up close, way way too close to be any sort of comfortable.

Her vision went orange and she felt a breath of air on her ear and realized that yeah, the last position was just fine, could they go back to that one now?!

“Now listen here Red, I don’t have time to deal with your good Samaritan _shit_ today, I have a job to do. So, I’m going to collect some dust, and you’re going to knock out all the evil guys your little heart desires. Then, while I make my getaway, you’re going to chase and make a scene and boom, my job’s done and not a hair on your pretty head is hurt. Is this clear enough?”

His arm tugged at her for a response and Ruby gulped and nodded, and will he please stop doing that! She was suddenly released and for a split second missed the heat, before flushing in embarrassment and blasting another man through the window with her sniper rifle, determined to take out her flustered feelings on them.

Her brain restarted and she started to plan again. If she could just finish up here in time, then she could take ginger out too! But, if she did what he said, then she wouldn’t be hurt, and a lot of people would still be arrested. No! That would make her an accessory to the crime, wouldn’t it? She’d never get into Beacon with a mark like robbery on her ledger!

Before her head could start to pound, Ruby took out another goon and muttered to herself, “Just do your best Ruby.”

And stuck in her mind, in a playing loop of _what to do, what to do_ , Ruby almost didn’t notice when the shop became silent, and a pile of men lay at her feet. The shopkeeper popped up from behind the counter and smiled shakily at her,

“I called the police, so I should be fine here now.”

Ruby grinned, now all she had left was… ginger. Huh, does not sound very threatening, she needs to find out his actual name. For you know, intimidation purposes and stuff.

She sprinted out of the shop and caught a flash of white scaling a ladder. Taking aim with her rifle she let loose a shot. He scrambled over the edge just in time to miss it and she heard the indignant yell, “Oh come on Red!”

Ruby looked at the ladder and estimated that she could make pretty good time on it, not like ginger had anywhere to go anyways. She scrambled up it and onto the roof. As soon as she made it, she gaped as a rumble went through the concrete surface beneath her feat. A plane lifted up from the side of the building and ginger gave her a mocking salute as he boarded.

“Ginger get back here and fight me!”

She screamed into the gale of the engines, sure that there was no way that her words even reached him.

As it was gaining height, he stuck his head back out, “Damn it Red, It’s Roman! Oh, and payback!”

He grinned charmingly while reaching into his pocket. A red crystal came hurtling towards her and _Roman_ was taking aim with his cane-gun thing, and an actual huntress was there, and interrogation and and and, the next thing she knew she was on a plane to Beacon and not quite sure how it all happened.


	2. Dust can cure your loneliness

Being ditched by Yang and shunned by Weiss, sorry _Ms. Schnee_ , had Ruby feeling a bit topsy turvy. When she was back at the dust shop, in the fight, she was a bit confused yes, but she was in her element, her body knew exactly what to do even if her mind was distracted. Friends, making friends, just not being annoying to other people, took a lot more effort. She wondered how she ever did it at Signal, but, they had been together for years, all got accepted into Signal together, they knew her and accepted her for who she was.

That’s how Yang is here, everyone was her age and she was bound to know _someone_. But Ruby was fifteen not seventeen and its only two years, it shouldn’t make that big of a difference, but it _does_ , and Ruby is, well, Ruby is lonely.

She wants to be around people, but not these people, and not even Yang right now, because she’s feeling a bit betrayed and knows that seeing others so happy with their friends will only make her feel worse.

She doesn’t know what to do until the clock chimes and people swarm outside, even though its nearly dark, and Ruby _knows_ then what she wants to do. There’s no explicit rule against leaving campus, and besides window shopping is the cure to the wounds of the soul, and before her mind catches up with her heart, her semblance is activated and she’s standing, breathless, in Remnant proper.

Everyone knows that the best weapon parts, refurbished outdated models and shiny new untested bits alike, can be found… on the shadier side of town. Not too shady, like there’s no skeletons or keep away signs or anything, but the light doesn’t seem to quite touch the ground. The building are squat but seem to tower, and the windows don’t appear to ever be fully clean, reflecting the world in a grimy filtered mirror.

But between the dusty shelves of long forgotten parts, where often she could just take a widget for nothing because the owner just wanted it out, was Ruby’s home. Screw people, weapons _understood_ her.

Coming out of a small ancient store with a bag of finds was a balm to Ruby’s wounded pride. Watch them poke fun at her now when they see what she can do with these!

Across from the pawn shop was a dust store. Despite what had happened only a few days ago, she knew that she was low, and if she _really_ wanted these parts to work right… Well, it wouldn’t hurt for a few minutes, right? Besides, the store _was_ quite crowded, so nobody would pull anything now, hopefully.

She entered to the little jingle of a bell and weaved between the quite well dressed people, (was this the style now?), to the back of the store, where the red and counteractive black dust was stored. Ruby thought back to the crystal Roman had thrown… if she had caught it she wouldn’t have needed more dust for _years_.

Flipping through the dust packets she whined, “Ughhhhh, _stupid_ Roman!”

“Quit complainin’ and hold this,” A _very_ familiar voice said as a large box was shoved into Ruby’s arms. She shifted the box in her arms and herd the rattle of crystal… oh no. Cocking her head around the box Ruby could see, oh yes it was,

“Ginger!” She hissed.

“Weird dye job!” He hissed back.

She relented, slightly, “Roman! I’m not- what is this box, crystals! I’m not helping you rob anything, I’m in Beacon now!”

Roman sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes at her, “And you’re here now, what does that say about you?” He reached down, (she hated that! Why can’t she be tall, she still has time to grow right?!), and placed his bowler firmly on her head. “Look, just place the box outside, I know you’re strong enough if you can swing around that rifle of yours, and then be on your way, or don’t. That simple. Bye now.”

And he swaggered off, his hat hair sticking up oddly in the back.

Ruby stifled a giggle and began elbowing her way through the crowd while barely being able to see around the box, placing it on the stoop outside and about to wander off until she saw the brim of the hat start to fall over her eyes.

Why did she do that? She just, followed what he said. Last time, it-it well got her into Beacon, but she has nothing to gain from it this time. She’s in Beacon already, does she want to be kicked out already for being an accessory? Why would Roman keep doing this himself?

How does this keep happening to her?!!

Ruby eyed the pawn shop. Huh, it was a short stumpy building, and the bricks on the side stuck out and a few were missing. She could probably, yeah no, she could definitely scale that building.

Once she was up, and she only slipped once- okay twice, she set herself against a water heater, where she could see them but they couldn’t see her.

This way once they were done with what she really hoped wasn’t a robbery, she could jump down and get some answers!

Ruby fiddled with her hair and remembered the hat… she supposed she could give that back too. If she brought it back to Beacon…and got her team… actual people who could probably stand her… then, they would have questions. Yang certainly would. Besides, it’s not like she could just bring evidence of a crime back to her dorm, once she got one that is.

A crime, why doesn’t she stop them? She’s done it before, though they kind of let her. And she only got away last time due to the help of an actual huntress. She herself is only an untrained huntress with barely two years of experience.

Would she be able to do it without-without getting hurt… or dying? They’re criminals, who knows how ruthless they are-

“Alright old man! Have fun talking to the police again! Move out guys! And gals, of course, of course.”

Ruby accidently flung the hat she had been twirling around in her hands and watched in horror as it sailed over the edge of the roof.

“Oh hey my hat! …Red will you come down already!”

Ruby sheepishly peeked over the roof to see no men or women in sight, just a frustrated ginger arranging his bowler.

She swung herself over the roof, only stumbling slightly to look up at the man.

“Why do you keep doing this?”

“Why didn’t you go home?”

The questions came out simultaneously and lost in the jumble of words, neither could understand the other.

Roman raised a hand, took a breath, and said, “Go home Red, it’s past your bedtime.”

Ruby bristled at his tone, bedtime! “Oh yeah, you’re so old I’m surprised you can be out past sundown!”

He raised the only eyebrow she could see, “Wow. Real scathing. And I’m only 18, or is it 19? Doesn’t matter. Anywho, you. Shouldn’t. Be. Here.”

Ruby was the one who this time stepped closer into his personal space, and barked up at him, “I’m not leaving until you tell me why you keep, I don’t know- not being horrible!”

Roman’s eye widened and he looked away briefly, “Shit. You’re just a kid who always shows up at the wrong time. You’re not even that much trouble. I’m not gonna kill a kid who is just, well- being a kid. Will you please go _home_ already! Some very let’s say, not nice people are about to show up and they would _not_ mind killing you.”

She went.


	3. Three times is not a coincidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman's just secretly wants a friend and is really bad at making them, okay?

Back at Beacon, it was like nothing had happened, no one there knew that a robbery had happened, or even noticed that she was gone. Ruby grimaced, that would change, she was sure of it, she just needed to meet people and then she wouldn’t be invisible any longer!

As soon as she entered the large hall where all of the prospective students were supposed to sleep, prospective because they weren’t truly students until they had teams and what if the team exam was something really gruesome? As soon as she entered Yang latched onto her, regaling her with all the tales of what her friends had been up to that summer and just _how_ cute that boy in the corner was, though he couldn’t throw a punch worth a damn.

Privately, Red thought that Roman was cuter, uh well- more physically appealing, and could probably hold up better in a fight. Not that she knew, oh of course not.

But Yang was her best friend, and even if she was maybe, a tiny bit, well a lot, _peeved_ at her for abandoning her right off the bat at a new place, Yang always knew how to fill up that hole in Ruby’s chest that her social anxiety had carved out.

And naturally, knew how to rip it right back open too with just a sentence, “Well, let’s go talk to her!”

It. Was. Awkward. But they both like books. That was good! Books are a great jumping off point, there is never a shortage of new books so that must mean never a shortage of conversation topics right? Ruby did wonder what ‘Ninja and Samurai, Forbidden Conquest’ was about though. And why it didn’t match the title on the outside of the book. Ruby was a little sister; she was an expert at sniffing out when someone was doing something a little sketchy, except apparently, when it came to certain gingers.

And Blake was definitely doing something she wasn’t supposed to, if they way she was being so shifty was any indication. The reason what through, was flying over Ruby’s head. It couldn’t be the book, books weren’t bad. So something else… oh! She must be feeling awkward after stepping between her and _Ms. Schnee._ Awkwardness could be mistaken for shiftiness any day, it’s gotten her into enough teacher trouble before. Satisfied, for now, Ruby was able to bop back to Yang and eagerly gossip about team assignments.

 

 

Team assignments were, well, they were one hell of a random lottery. First eye contact, who came up with that?!  Although she didn’t have much time to think about that when she was _hurtling through the air_!

But hey teams! With Blake who was to be honest, _kinda awesome_ in a fight, Ms. Sch-no it’s Weiss now(!), and … _Yang_.

Yang seemed happy to be on a team with her and the others, but was she really? She seemed so happy to be with her friends, and now here she was, with a couple of strangers and her sister. Well… she’d just have to prove that this was the best team ever and make Yang extra happy to be here! Maybe they could go on a shopping trip in Remnant! They hadn’t gone just the two of them since Ruby got accepted to Signal. There were always friends, and plans, or dad tagged along… Yup! That’s what she’d do! Super-Special-Awesome-Sister-Shopping-Trip this weekend!

 

It took a little convincing, and a little bit more to convince Weiss that _no_ this was not a team thing, it was a _sister_ thing, but now Ruby was walking down Remnant’s streets arm and arm with Yang, chattering on happily about Beacon, which _stupid_ , of course Yang knew, they had all of their classes together. Ruby looked nervously up at Yang, she wasn’t boring her, right, right?!

Yang noticed her look and laughed lightly, “No worries Ruby, I love going out with my little sister! Now come on, I see a _book store_!”

Now Ruby knew she must have looked really pathetic. She could spend hours in one aisle, so Yang only went in with her under dire circumstances. But oh, there was a Moonbucks inside, so that was awesome! Yang could have her fill of pastries, and Ruby could browse the books, and then they could go to a _weapons shop_ , and mutually drool over the shiny new gadgets.

Ruby didn’t, didn’t have an especially sharp memory, but certain things stuck. So instead of immediately heading for the fairy tales, she casually sauntered towards an aproned employee.

“Excuse me, where would I be able to find ‘Ninja and Samurai, Forbidden Conquest’?”

The bored employee looked down at her rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb towards aisle six. “Aren’t you a little young?” he muttered, shrugged, and walked away.

“Um, rude.” Ruby frowned. But she followed his advice and was soon twisting and turning through the back of the store, making sure to always keep to the shelves marked six. This store reminded her of rabbit tunnels, the shelves started out straight and quickly curved, intersecting eachother and creating winding paths until you could not see the front anymore. She supposed that’s why it was called _The Burrow._ It created a cozy feeling, like she was the only one in the store…

“Woah Red, what’cha doing in this section? Even I feel like blushing here, did you get lost or something?”

Ruby tensed, “Oh no! Not now!” She whirled away from the bookshelf to face him, “Not. Now. Roman! My sister is here and I would never hear the end of it if she finds us together!” the words feel out of her mouth as serious of Yang causing a scene stomped through her head.

Roman smiled placatingly and smoothed down the blue blazer that had replaced his usual white coat, “Look I’m not here to cause any trouble. At least not yet. The heist doesn’t start for another few hours and I wanted to say hi to my little red friend.” He looked around at the wall of black sheets covering X-rated titles and she immediately flushed, “Never thought I’d find you here.”

“Sh-shut up! I was just trying to find out what Blake was reading so we could talk about it together!”

Roman stifled a snort into his gloved fist, and drawled “Yeah, I wouldn’t try to have that conversation unless you girls are _really_ good _friends_ ,” With a salacious wink at the end.

Ruby did know what he was trying to imply, and yeah Blake was startlingly beautiful, in a way that Ruby couldn’t believe that she was even allowed near her, but at this point she was honestly just looking for friends, and thought that Blake, with all of her mysterious actions and protective tendencies, could be a really dependable one.

But- he didn’t need to know how painfully desperate she was for friends, so badly deflect it was, “Oh yeah! Well what are you doing in this section?”

Roman’s eye softened and he reached over to grab book behind Ruby’s head. She craned to look and could make out a gorgeous cake with Greeva Goodwitch scrawled on it in icing.

She blurted out, “A cookbook? You cook?”

“I bake Red, and the crafts aisle, aisle 2, just so happens to intersect six at this junction.  Believe it or not, but your savoir, Glynda Goodwitch, her family’s been in the food business for way longer than they’ve been hunters, and I am quite a fan. Her fighting is truly spectacular, but I hear her soufflé’s even better.”

Ruby felt like her mind had broken. A semi-famous criminal… bakes? Out of shear bewilderment of such a banal task, she reached up to feel Roman’s forehead for a fever and placed a hand on her own to compare the temperatures. Huh, normal. That’s weird. She began to pull her hand away when he caught it by the wrist,

“Yeah, I can enjoy activities too, Red. It might feel like all I do is plan and heist, but I do occasionally have spare time.” His grin turned sharper and he tugged on her wrist causing her to stumble closer to him, “A fact which if you ever want to check, feel free to stop by.”

Ruby regained her balance quickly enough that she could shoot a glare at him for that move. As soon as she opened her mouth to protest, she snapped it closed in mute disbelief as she realized that one hand on her wrist, cookbook on the floor… and the free hand doing something to her scroll!

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!” She hissed through clenched teeth. This was such and invasion of privacy! “How did you even know my password?!”

Roman looked up from the scroll for a moment, “Oh you were about to tell Yang where you were so you left it open. Password breaking is Neo’s area, not mine.” He slipped the scroll back into her pouch, “There, no harm done, feel free to hit me up anytime,” He leaned in and grinned, “….friend”

He released her wrist, swiped his book from the floor, and swaggered off the way he came.

“Ruby, Ruby where are-oh there you are!” Yang poked her head around a shelf and then ran up to her, “Who introduced you to book like this? I’ll kick their ass!” She grinned, “Unless of course you’re curious of better partners than your weapons and are just exploring…”

Ruby’s face exploded in color, “Yang!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't get much practice at proper socialization when you have only one friend/business partner.


	4. Weiss Started it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here! Only took me two weeks, but I did something!

 

 

Ruby sat on her top bunk staring at her scroll screen. ‘Call Now’ rotated slowly, the pixelated message going dim as time wore on.  She worried her lip nervously, sure that her screen would explode in an incoming call at any moment, terrified that it would. Why would he add his number, and his very recognizable name, to _her_ scroll? What kind of criminal would so blatantly add his contact info?! _Roman Torchwick_ stared mockingly up from the screen at her. The picture was blank, but she could feel it. The words, just the name, was taunting her, daring her to tap it, to send a message, to _delete_ it.

The door slammed open and Ruby slammed the scroll shut, dropping it on the bedspread like it burned. Weiss glanced up, and just as quickly jerked her head away.

Ruby’s heart sank. She knew that Weiss didn’t like her, knew that she didn’t think that Ruby was fit to be leader, but it still hurt. They were _partners_ , and Weiss could barely stand to talk to her. Is this what the next four years would be like. She would die, of heartbreak or miscommunication, but if something didn’t change…

Weiss settled unhappily on her bunk without a word to her and suddenly the room was too small, the air too hot, and Ruby _had_ to leave.

The night air was cool, a step below chilling, and suddenly Ruby regretted running out in just her uniform, regretted running out at all. Maybe if she stayed they could have talked. Forcibly hashing it out. Weiss would have to talk to her eventually and it would just get worse the longer their strung-out tension lasted. It would snap eventually.

But she ruined her chance. The night was lonely, almost lonelier than in the dorm room, Yang would eventually be in the dorm room, would she know to find her out here? Ruby didn’t think so. Weiss would snap if asked, and Yang would argue, and they both would be dist

racted for a good hour and by the time they remembered what it was all about, Ruby would probably be back.

Ruby slid down against the side of the building and pulled her scroll back out. Her contact list was laughably short, and the number of people actually at Beacon and not Signal even shorter. Before she could destroy her lip even further, she punched the ‘Call Now’ button.

Three dots appeared on screen before a grimy warehouse took up the screen. A jolt of orange hair shot across the screen before doubling back. The camera focused to Roman curiously walking forward. His face split into a grin,

“Oh hey-o Red! Fancy seeing you here! Didn’t expect you to actually call. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

In the face of such obnoxious cheer, Ruby’s face crumpled. Tears started to run down her cheeks as she stared at the screen. His grin vanished as he called off screen frantically for someone.

Despite, despite Weiss, everything was sort of okay for Ruby. But suddenly being greeted so cheerfully was a punch in the gut. It was how she was always greeted at Signal, with smiles and laughter, but here, she was the kid, the girl made leader to prove a point.

A girl, woman really, made her way onscreen and peered at the sobbing teenager. Smacking roman on the arm she made a motion with her hand and flounced away, leaving Roman bewildered.

“Okay, um Red. I put my number in your phone so Neo says that you’re my problem. Why don’t you come on down and hang out with us? You seem to find us anyways and we promise we’re not doing anything nefarious right now.”

Ruby hiccupped, “What if I give you up?”

He stated immediately, “I’d kill you,” but then with the smile back on, “But that’s neither here nor there. Considering you haven’t turned in my number yet, for some ungodly reason, I don’t think you’re very much the giving up type.”

The screen went blank with a wave and three little dots popped up on screen. Tapping on it, they expanded into a message simply saying ‘239 Lion Street’.

Some older students had been talking about Lion street, talking about how it was the shadier warehouse part of town, as well as making truly terribly puns, like how it was only for the bravest of hearts. But they also mentioned that it was by the docks, which was all that Ruby needed to know.

She could be walking to her death, speeding off campus, or she could be heading to be around people who honestly didn’t seem all that bothered by her company. She had screwed it up with Weiss already, making a friend was something that Ruby _needed_.

Buildings blurred past, dust shops, weapons dealers, book stores, all places that she could spend hours in, but would only feed the encroaching loneliness.

Ruby had to yank her semblance to a stop when a slap of wet wind graced her face. She teetered on the edge of the concrete wall overlooking the dock, peering down at the lack of workers, everyone having headed home hours before. Turning around to face to looming buildings, she repeated softly to herself, “239 Lion Street”

“Yeah Red shout it a little louder why don’t you! Need everyone to know that!”

Ruby pinwheeled her arms and stepped backwards, the wind swallowing her scream when her foot met nothing. A tight grip yanked her arm and spun her into an unyielding body. The both of them hit the ground with a grunt, the gravel staining the back of Roman’s coat.

“Dam it Red, does trouble find you, or do you actively seek it out?”

Ruby pushed up on her arms to bring herself up, feeling the ground give and give out a release of air when she realized that she was… on the ground. On top of Roman actually. And now her hand was pressed down on his chest, right above her chest and she could feel the tempo, the pitter patter of beats pressing against her palm. And Roman’s bowler was somewhere to the side, went flying when they went down, so his hair was fanned out on the ground, a choppy copper halo.

And so, there he was, a real gritty human being when he shouldn’t be. Because if he could smirk and grimace as look at her with his two eyes, impossibly bright, and his heart could pound, and he _saved_ her, probably has saved her before, well then he wasn’t really a villain. And if he wasn’t the villain of her story, if he was something friendly but not a friend, what did that make him?

Because suddenly, Ruby’s world wasn’t black and white, with villains of fairy tales that clearly had to be defeated. Because apparently bad guys could have a heart. And they could steal and kill, and that apparently doesn’t kill the heart. And Ruby was staring and not quite sure how to make of all of this, because how was she supposed to be like a fairy tale heroine if that wasn’t how the world was.

Ruby had an epiphany and felt like she should have been seeing different colors, but the sky was still gray black, threatening to storm, and she was still on the ground, with a man that was probably quite tired of being sat on, and she should really get up at this point.

Arms gripped her waist and Roman rocked to his feet, lifting her up and setting her back on the ground, standing. He swooped down to place his hat firmly back on his head, casting a shadow over his eyes and hiding the glimmering light.

“You may not be a talker Red, but you sure are a starer. C’mon, we’re close.”

Roman gripped her hand in his leather clad grasp and started tugging her along, deeper into the warehouses until she was so completely lost that she wouldn’t be able to point back to even the direction of the docks.

He jolted his swagger to a stop before a completely ordinary door that _must_ hold sinister intentions behind it. Ruby didn’t anticipate the stop and stumbled into his side before halting. He looked down at her with an almost fond grin before pushing the suspiciously unlocked door in. Ruby blinked, sure that she imagined the positive emotion, it had only been a few meetings (no way that he liked her, even Weiss didn’t), so Roman striding forwards jerked their joined hands and she to hurriedly skip in after him, trying not to fall on her face, again.

Three flights of stairs leading down later and the two had reached another inconspicuous grey door, but this time with a masked individual in front of it.

The revealed mouth turned up in a sneer and Ruby felt indignation light in her heart as he drawled, “A _human_ Roman? Getting soft?”

Roman pulled back his lips and _snarled_ at the man, before brushing past him and pulling Ruby through the doorway.

The room was sparsely decorated and the walls, the same rough concrete as the hallway, did not exactly give off a welcoming air. But…the little woman waltzing  up to them and reaching up to pat Ruby on the head silently, that, that was a bit warmer.

Ruby giggled and waved at the woman, entranced by the way her hair color parted so naturally, she had never seen anyone with neapolitan hair. It was beautiful but just, different. The woman danced away towards a set of couches and Ruby moved to follow, held back by their linked hands that she had actually forgotten about. Ruby looked up and raised an eyebrow in question.

Roman chuckled, the ugly snarl from earlier nowhere to be found, “Fine little Red, have your freedom.”

He unclasped his hand and moved his hand to the small of her back, pushing her gently to the threadbare couches. Neo perched nimbly on the arm of the sofa, Roman pulling Ruby to the cushion beside him. It reminded her of the seating arrangements that her past friends would have chosen, too many of them and two few seatings, so all of them mashed together. All though, in this case, there were too few people and more than enough seating.

“You know that I can move around by myself, no need to just keep directing me everywhere.” She whispered, not seeing the point in talking loudly when they were all so close anyways.

Roman moved his arm from around her waist and threw them in the air, “And she speaks!” Laughing he flopped one arm down around her shoulders and used the other to pull out his scroll. “Besides, maybe I don’t want you wandering around and seeing something that your mind will get all justice-ey for. You really need to fix that hero complex of yours.”

The woman gestured and Roman’s ear turned a dull shade of pink, “Don’t be like that Neo, of course not.  Besides, I don’t even know little Red’s name!”

Ruby humphed and sunk deeper into the cushions, the chill in the air going right through her school uniform and making her weigh the pros and cons before just curling into his warm side. She murmured into the soft fabric on his shoulder, “Don’t need to fix my hero complex, you fix your villainous one.” She yawned, exhaustion hitting her now that she was warm and unwound from the events of the day, “And it’s Ruby, Ruby Rose.”

“And isn’t that just a catchy name. They’re going to sing song about that if you have your way.”

Ruby smiled, that sounded nice. Her eyes started fluttering shut, and maybe she wasn’t in the safest place, but she was relatively sure she wouldn’t die from taking a quick nap. Almost certain. Besides, Roman made a nice pillow, he should work out more.


	5. In Which Roman is an Old Man

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only a little bit and pretty late, but it's finals week. I was going to wait until next week actually, when they're all done, but I'd rather be writing than dealing with essay writing block. As always, feedback is appreciated!

 

“Ah God FU-fudging dam-dang it! Neo she’s not two, I can swear in front of her!”

Ruby groggily blinked her eyes up at the man who was furiously punching into a keypad on his scroll. She wondered what woke her up when her pillow violently jerked, twisting to get away from Neo’s poking fingers.

Ruby sat up, rubbing her now bruised cheek as her eyes widened in shock. The previously empty warehouse was now bustling with people in masks and hoods, people even filling up the small sitting area she was in, draping themselves over armchairs and grabbing coffee from the communal pot. She tugged on the skirt of her uniform that had gotten twisted up as she slept and nervously bit her lip. She definitely wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Ginger… can I leave?” Ruby felt paralyzed, sure she was accepted at Beacon, but she was practically a baby huntress! Classes had barely started, she wasn’t prepared to take down criminal enterprises by herself!

Roman swatted Neo’s prodding hands and glanced down at her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and gestured with his free hand, “Look around Red. Nobody cares. You leave them alone and nobody will bother you. It’s not like they offed you when you were sleeping or anything. Oh. And you drool.”

Face burning, Ruby snapped back, “I do not! And even if that were somehow true it would only be because you’re so comfortable! Pick up a weight sometime!”

“Damn did you just call me fat?” Roman turned to the woman who was suddenly and mischievously interested in the conversation. “Neo, I think she called me fat!”

A ball of dread had hardly settled in her stomach before it was flipped; no, wait, Ruby was flipped. Quite quickly that soft shoulder had turned into something bony that dug into her waist, and Ruby desperately clung onto heavy white fabric to avoid slipping out of his light grip and tumbling headfirst onto the ground. By the time she was situated, enough people had noticed her predicament that a wolf whistle was let out and,

“Yeah-boy gettim Roman!”

If she had thought that her face was burning before, it was _flaming_ now. She whispered to herself, “Not fair. Not fair. Stupid height. I drink a lot of milk, why am so short?”

Roman’s grip around her legs tightened to get her attention, “Still think that I can’t cut it Red? Or should we see how high I can get you?”

“No! It’s fine! You’re big and mighty and whatever bullshit else! Let me down!” Ruby pushed her jagged hair out of her face and pushed on his back to lever herself up. Neo was giving out silent peals of laughter as Roman hoisted her away with a,

“Hmm, no”, and everyone else quickly resumed their jobs now that the initial excitement was over. Despite her position, and almost non-existant hand combat skills, Ruby was certain that she was strong and nimble enough that she could get out of his grip if she needed to. Besides, it wasn’t like he was… malicious. It seemed more like a big joke to him than any serious threats being made. Though, the way he threatened earlier, death threats were just par for the course of a normal greeting.

Regardless, Ruby dug her elbow into his back, eliciting a sharp yelp, and propped her chin up to stare down and passerby whose eyes lingered a little too long. The masks sometimes made it hard to tell, but by the time they arrived in another concrete workroom, she had mastered the art of seeing through the cutouts to the face below.

Her hand smacked her jaw as she was quickly flipped of off the shoulder and then very slowly and gently placed on her feet. Roman exaggeratedly cracked his back, rubbing his hand in against where Ruby had been jabbing purposefully.

“Damn Red, I, personally, chauffeur you all the way across the compound, and this is how you repay me? Hurting and old man’s aching back and disturbing my workers?”

“Not your workers, they’re Cinder’s. Con Artist.” Came a voice from the back of the room. A girl with mint green hair stepped out of the shadows as Roman’s loud groan filled the room.

“Oh god they’re early. I don’t have time to babysit Cinder’s little ragmuffins.”

The girl crossed her arms, her unhappy demeanor growing fierce, “We are actually doing _work._ Now your girlfriend has to leave so you can fulfill your end!”

Roman and Ruby exclaimed at the same time,

“Not my girlfr-“

“Oh frickin final-“

And Ruby was manhandled outside the room by the girl and a door slammed cutting off her sentence. She hopped forward a few steps to avoid falling and almost tripped again over a long pair of legs sprawled across the floor.

She stopped and stared down the boy who didn’t back down, both of them locked in mortal combat, refusing to be the one to dishonor their family by blinking first.

“Mercury.” He offered, narrowing his eyes in challenge.

“Ruby.” She directed back, widening hers to show dominance.

She saw a tear fall slowly from the corner of his eye and knew victory would be shortly coming.

He coughed and looked away, admitting his uselessness in the art of staredowns. “Damn it. How’d you even find me?”

Ruby looked around at the hallway, where it was fairly empty, only a few masked figures darting in and out of other rooms. The two of them were the only ones in the farther section of concrete. She attempted to raise a brow at him, “You’re in the middle of the floor. You are sitting exactly in the spot where people who want to be found sit.”  

His lips pursed and he resumed his staring match with the floor, “I’m a ninja. I should be able to hide in plain sight.”

“Yha no. Ghosts do that. Not humans. Less your semblance lets you turn invisible.”

Mercury finally met the champions eyes again as she sat beside him, both of their legs stretched out, Mercury’s able to touch the opposing wall and Ruby’s nowhere close. “That. Would be amazing.” He  grinned at her, “Sounds like you have a short problem, wanna know the secret to being taller?”

“Yes!” Is there a secret? Is this what Yang knew? Ruby knew that biology and genetics classes had lied to her all along.

His grin turned wicked as he pulled up his pant leg, “Just gotta cut off your leg.”

She gaped at the brilliantly intricate mechanical workings of his leg, and as he pulled up the other pant, legs.

“I showed you mind, now show me yours.”

Ruby gestured helplessly at her legs, the tights and school girl skirt doing nothing to disguise the fact that they were, flesh and blood legs. “Well you know. I got these. They’re pretty short but they’re pretty good at running, and stuff, leg stuff, you know. Sure they don’t have like _rockets_ or anything but-“

“I get it Ruby. Legs.” He whistled a bit and looked around. “This. Is not a particularly interesting place. Wanna bust this joint?”

Ruby grinned for the first time in what felt like days, “Yes please! All this grey is getting to me! Hey I know this awesome twenty-four house cookie bar. You in?”

Mercury bounced to his feet, “I think this is the start of something beautiful.”


	6. Just Shut Up and Eat Your Cookie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continue the world of finals and short shenanigans with Ruby and Mercury

 

“And I tell you, if you dip the triple-chocolate fudge cookie in chocolate milk you’re going to cancel out the fudge-ness, it’ll just be wet and chocolate sameness! You won’t have the interplay of different levels of chocolate!” Ruby swung her arms about to emphasize her point, nearly knocking a waiter’s platter over. He gave her a dark look and skittered away.

Mercury snorted and defiantly dipped his cookie into the milk slowly, maintaining eye contact as hers grew bigger.

She huffed and crossed her arms, jerking her head away, “I’m starting to think we should call this whole friendship business off if you’re just going to act like a pleb.”

Mercury chocked on her cookie, “A- What did you just call me?”

“I don’t know. Weiss says it all the time. So I figured it would fit.” Ruby shrugged and then picked up another cookie, practically melting as a warm chocolate chip hit her tongue.

“Sounds like you’re the real plebeian, not me.”

“A What?”

Mercury’s shoulders shook as he stifled laughter. “Don’t worry ‘bout it”

“Well I’m gonna.”

Ruby and Mercury finished off the large plate between them in comfortable silence. A tension around her shoulders started to slip off, something she hadn’t even realized had been gathering. Roman, was, fun… in a way. But he was dangerous and she never knew what he was thinking. But Mercury seemed open with his intentions, which were as simple as slipping out to have cookies with a perfectly good stranger. Ruby could get behind that, and besides, if he was as hard up for friends as she was, which she doubted, she wanted someone to confide in so badly sometimes it scared her with its desperation, then they could help each other out. And besides, if this turned out badly, if she drove him off or he turned out to be spectacularly boring, then there wasn’t much behind them to lose. Without Roman, she wouldn’t have even met Mercury.

Roman. Did he even know that she was gone? Did he even care?

“Pretty deep thoughts over there Ruby.” A cookie was shoved in her face and Ruby snatched it instinctively. Looking down at the plate, it was, the last one. How considerate?

“Thanks, I guess.” She nibbled on it contemplatively, the moon was as high as it was ever going to get and she left at sundown. She’s been gone for… five hours?

“I did not hand you that cookie for you to continue to ignore me. If you’re so worried, why don’t you check your scroll for boy-toy?” Mercury leaned back away from Ruby’s sputtering, guffawing as her punch across the table missed by a mile.

“He’s not- we’re not like-!”

Mercury cupped his chin in his hand and waggled his eyebrows at her, “O-oh. Do you let every random neanderthal tote you around?”

“I’m short. It happens. Sometimes. I mean, it really was just that one time. But it could. Happen again. Maybe he had a nice butt. You don’t know.” She slid down in her seat, slouching until her legs hit Mercury’s, then took him out at the knees! “Ah damn! Crap that hurts! Got steel knees or something?”

He deadpanned, “Ruby. Kid. Listen. My whole leg is metal. I wasn’t going to take my pants off in the hallway to show you.”

“Right. Yeah. That would have been. Something. Something not good.”

“You gonna take out your scroll or what?”

Ruby thought to the scroll and realized that not only _might_ Roman be searching for her, but Yang would be freaking out! “Yeah no, I’m good. I think I can avoid a sisterly chewing out today.”

“Aw siblings. That sucks. Want to chill with us tonight? We can hang out all night, drink way too much soda, and return you all zombie-like back home in the morning.” Mercury sent off a few quick texts and displayed the screen to Ruby, “See, Emerald isn’t planning leave Cinder’s side so we have the apartment all to ourselves, no bitchy ‘why aren’t you going to bed?!’ to interrupt our fun!”

She didn’t even know Mercury last name, is age, or anything. But neither did he about her. The offer of staying away from Weiss just a little longer and being able to put off facing Yang… “Sounds legit! Let’s go.”

“On one condition. Please don’t ever say legit seriously again.”


	7. In Which the Plot Starts Rolling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long... because I've made three cosplays instead of writing. But the good news, there is now a plot! Never thought I would see one of those on my work.

 

“What do you want to do with your life?”

It was three in the morning, and amid the chaos of candy wrappers, popcorn kernels, and strewn about pillows, Mercury propped his head up on his arm and stared into Ruby’s eyes with a soulfulness that only came about from total and complete exhaustion.

“I want to be a huntress, of course.” Ruby giggled tiredly to herself, why she would want to be anything else was hilarious, a gut buster.

Mercury rapped his knuckles softly on her forehead, “I know that silly, you won’t shut up about it. I mean afterwards. You hit forty, you’ve saved the world a couple times, got admiration, money, blah blah, what then? After a while you just can’t do it, or have so many problems that you get ‘retired’. What then?”

Ruby’s brain stuttered to a halt. What then? Being a huntress was all she ever wanted. What then? If she wanted to do something else, she’d be doing it. What then?

“Whoa, Rubes, breathe. Don’t have to tell me now. I just thought you might have something… something to have afterwards.” Mercury squeezed her hand and rolled to get up. Springing to his feet he swiped the buttery popcorn bowl from Ruby’s death grip, and trotted over to the kitchen, leaving Ruby to contemplate.

Or so she thought, as a minute into her staring down the remote and willing it to jump into her hand, he poked his head back in.

“You know that twenty-four-hour candy shop that we-I mean I, conveniently but totally not coincidentally live across from?”

Ruby thought back to when Mercury first lured her into the apartment building with promises of candy and cartoons. The surrounding area held a minimart, and other commodities, like the mentioned candy store and a flower shop. Nothing too terribly interesting but the hours…

“Yeah I guess. Are you sure about that? That’s kind of an oddly specific venture.”

Mercury smirked and showered Ruby with loose bills and change. She flinched when a coin smacked her square in the nose, but still nimbly filched the money away into a neat pile next to her. He tossed one more bill and stowed his wallet, “I really need more candy as we demolished my supply, and you” He pointed very dramatically and very reminiscent of the cartoons looping on the now flickering television screen, “need to go on a walk!”

 

A short elevator ride later, and a death defying hop across the street, where are all those cars going anyway, and Ruby ‘Rubes’ Rose was going to swagger into the candy shop, confidently order something that Mercury would like, no _love,_ and get out, no social cues missed.

Ruby Rose, however just opened the door slowly and cringed when the bell tinkled above the door.

The shopkeeper, a grizzly old faunus, twitched his round ears in greeting and smiled warmly at her. His voice grumbled across to the doorway, in a fond grouchiness, “Now what can I do for one of my young patrons at,” he exaggeratedly checked the grandfather clock in the back of the small shop, “three thirty in the morning? Up bright-eyed and bushy tailed I see.”

Ruby was quite sure that the darkening spots under her eyes and slouched posture gave off anything but a bright demeanor but tried for a smile anyways. “Um. Hi. Do I just” she waved vaguely, “Or can I?” and ended weakly.

He chuckled a bit and beckoned her closer to the counter. The twinkling hard candies and fudge glistened invitingly under the glass as the cooler hummed pleasantly in the empty store. Entranced by the chocolate so near and mouthwatering, Ruby stepped forward and crouched down to stare at the delicacies.

“Your order awaits you up here I believe, young miss.”

Ruby shot straight up, flushing deeply as he fussed about behind the counter. “Right o-of course! I need. Umm. I need…” Ruby frantically searched her mind, it having gone completely blank. Mercury liked blue right. He had it one his outfit. And he did like a challenge, as he refused to back down when she thoroughly trounced him in Stupendous Stick Sisters… “Can I have 32 blue gobstoppers please?” At his incredulous look Ruby shank into herself and rubbed her ear nervously.

He turned away and began filling the bag, muttering to himself almost too quiet for Ruby, “Getting younger and younger every month I swear.”

Young… for candy? If anything, she thought that a fifteen year old buying candy was a bit childish. But maybe, yeah, she could see how that would be weird at frick all in the morning.

“Here you go. I’ll tell them that you’re all set. Don’t worry ‘bout the payment. Enjoy the rest of your day now?” He headed into the back storage room and left Ruby standing all alone holding her rather heavy bag of gobstoppers, confusion taking over her expression.

“Um, what.”

 

“He didn’t want any money, so I’m keeping what you threw at me.” Ruby tossed the bag of gobstoppers at Mercury, who in his lounging position was in no way able to stop them from slamming into gut at full impact.

“Good Grimm Rubes, what’d you buy me? A cannonball?” He drawled nonplussed, but was betrayed by his fingers eagerly searching out whatever was inside the red bag. He pulled out a gobstopper and shoved it inside his mouth, reminding Ruby very much so of a three-year-old she used to watch. He mumbled around the large candy, “Totally unfair that you got it for free by the way. He always charges me full price. You gotta remind him of his grandchild or somthin’.”

“Hmm maybe, hey stop hoggin’ Legends 2 and hand that multiplayer over.”

 

Exactly thirty-two blueberry gobstoppers later, Ruby was wavering outside of her first class of the day. She would be honestly surprised if she made it through the day without falling asleep in _one_ of her classes. Her body was just not made for all-nighters.

So when a body hip checked her without warning, Ruby had no resistance and crumpled to the ground.

“Oh. My. Grimm. I am so sorry! I totally saw you there. And I thought you saw me! I mean, you couldn’t because I was behind you, but, oh sorry! I am terribly making a mess of things!”

Ruby raised her pounding head, not made any better from the word vomit expelled at her, and took in a cat-like faunus with stripes on her ears who was offering and retracting her arm quickly and nervously while looking at Ruby worriedly with her big gold eyes. _Tiger_ , Ruby’s mind tiredly supplied, a few seconds behind the rest of her. _Oh right, she’s still here_. O it’s next cycle, Ruby grabbed the offered hand and hauled herself to her feet.

“Hi. I’m Ruby Rose. A first year. And-”

“I kno- I mean! It’s so nice to meet you!  I’m your bo-best friend! We get to do everything together, I’m a first year too, so we have _everything_ together.” The girl bounced on her heels expectantly, her ears drooping every second going by unanswered. As soon as they clung flat to her strawberry curls, they bounced back up again, her eyes lighting up as if a switch had gone off in her brain, “And I’m Curtis! Curtis Wheels!”

Ruby grinned, “And it’s very nice to meet you Curtis Wheels!” The girl may have been a bit odd, but she seemed like fun. And besides, she could always use more friends who didn’t spend their free time robbing dust stores blind.


	8. In Which Roman comes Back

 

Ruby had just sat her butt down in the lecture hall just Yang, Blake, and worst of all… Weiss, burst through the classroom doors, faces darkening with fury as they lit upon her.

She miserably hunkered down, still terribly sleep deprived, as the worried fury of teammates rained down,

“Where have you _been_?!”

“ _Why_ would you not call us?”

But it was Weiss’s quiet disappointment that cut through, “Did I drive you off?”

Ruby shivered as ice cubes ran down her spine, Weiss was sad, hurt and _disappointed_. Ruby never meant to disappoint _anyone._ Just as quickly, a steely fire raced down, melting the iciness into a warm fury, _YES, Weiss had_. Weiss had driven her off, questioned her, dug her down till Ruby was full of doubt and fear of failure, and an itching need to run. Because that’s what she was good at, what even her semblance had manifested as, _running_.

And Ruby was going to say just that. To turn that self-doubt and shove it at Weiss until she broke down to Ruby’s level, or worse, better, _understood_.

Squaring her shoulders, planting her feet, smoothing down her day-old uniform, Ruby’s mouth twisted out of its grimace and into something harsher, meaner, and then it opened,-

“Oh! She was with me last night, you know showing me around, she’s _so_ much better with directions than me, helping me out. It got pretty late so we had a sleepover!”

And then there was Curtis Wheels. The girl whose bouncing leg had been all that Ruby could annoyingly focus on for the last five minutes had been all but forgotten at the entrance of WBY, and now had forcibly inserted herself back into the conversation.

Blake’s laser sharp focus trained itself on the girl. Her golden eyes flicked up to the ears perched on Curtis Wheels’ head, and back down to her wide eyes. Blake squinted and tilted her head in thought, before drawing out slowly, “I see… where is your team?”

Curtis Wheels grinned and bounced in her seat, jostling Ruby, “You know, around. I didn’t think that I needed to be with them all the time, so I took Ruby’s classes!”

Blake drawled, “ _Right_ ”.

Yang fidgeted uncomfortably at the thick tension and grasped Blake and Weiss by the arm, tugging all three into a bench beside Ruby. “Well, I guess I can understand. You were showing your new friend around and probably just got caught up, like you do. Just… call us next time, alright?”

Ruby braced herself to feel smothered, but a fuzzy blanket of caring just settled over her. Yang wasn’t angry just… worried, because in the end, Yang was all she had. Yang was warm, a blazing inferno of rash decisions and fierce protectiveness, and Ruby would never, _ever_ , be burned by her.

“Yeah. Yeah alright, I can do that.” Ruby gave a soft tired little smile to Yang and was rewarded with a tight quick hug that Ruby barely had time to melt into before it was over.

 

In the scope of the day, Ruby’s prediction came true. She slept right through the lecture on faunus, and apparently missed, as Yang enthusiastically filled her in, Cardin filling out his death certificate in the form of Pyrrha.  By the time dinner rolled around, Ruby begged it off to go catch some early sleep in the dorms.

She barreled through the door, eye taking the sight of her room as permission to start closing and she hurdled into her bed with a resounding ‘Oomph’. Ruby snuggled into her blankets, a slight push to start drifting off, when something hard digging into her hip unhappily made her pry her eyes open. “What in the… oh. My scroll.” Her scroll. Which was probably full of urgent text and voice messages from her team. Ad if she wasn’t lucky, an automated warning from Beacon for leaving campus.

Ruby rolled over on her side and slid the scroll out, the light blinding her for a second before she slid the brightness down to the lowest setting. Most was as expected, a few texts from Blake, about fifty from Weiss, and a jumble of missed texts, calls, and messages from Yang. But… every so often, a notification would be sandwiched between the wave of concern, saying the same thing, ‘Are you alright?’, ‘Where did you go?’. From… Roman. Roman cared enough? She spent more time with Mercury overall than Roman, and she hadn’t gotten anything from him. Was it, was it safe for Roman to be doing this?

As her mind was thinking, he fingers were typing, ‘Ginger. I’m fine. Are you alright, safe?’

‘lol. Alright y. safe, that’s a matter of speaking.’

Safe. _Safe_. He wasn’t _safe_. ‘Im comig to get you.’

She tossed the scroll on the nightstand and slid off the bed. She was pulling on her shoes and out the door when the barrage of messages came through, blinking away in the dark room.

‘Ruby w’

‘wait’

‘y’

‘im fine’

‘dot worry’

‘ur comig rnt u’

‘come n find me’

‘ill b waitin’

 

Ruby was semblanceing down the hall when she, quite literally, ran into Curtis Wheels.

“Hey Ruby! Where’re heading?”

Ruby stumbled back a little, smoothing down her mussed spikes from exiting her semblance so suddenly, “Um a friend’s in trouble. I’m going. Going to help him, yeah.”

Curtis Wheels cocked her head and narrowed her eyes, “What’s his name? Maybe I can help.”

Ruby’s mind went blank, she most certainly could _not_ let people hear about Roman. “Ginger. Bit of weird name, parents were very literal. He really does keep to himself, doubt you would know him, gotta go Curtis Wheels, bye!”

The faunus’s eyes shot open, slack-jawed and weakly waving as Ruby raced away.

 

_Stupid_ , stupid. Why did she say that to Curtis Wheels? She had just panicked and couldn’t think of anything else to say! As she got further off campus, Ruby skidded to a halt beside a tree. Did she even know where she was going? Did she just hear that Roman was in trouble and come racing to his defense? Like he couldn’t take care of himself? But for now, _where was she going_?!

A glinting light through the trees in the waning sunlight caught Ruby’s attention. She was almost to the end of the forest, had reached the outskirts of town before wondering what exactly she was doing. But that direction… that was where the more high end shops were nestled from the hustle and bustle of the main square. Like expensive watches, custom clothing, dust enriched weapons. Dust… if he was doing what she thinks he is doing, he was in so much shit!

Ruby marched towards the light, fury bubbling through her blood. Every time! Every time he was doing this! Why couldn’t he see that it was _wrong_ , stealing hurt people!

The dust store front came into view as she rounded the corner, people in masks filing in and out with crates, loose dust clinging to the wooden slats sparking as the sun finally gave out and the street lamps flickered on. Ruby slid behind a deer faunus and entered the shop. Tall cylinders were starkly empty, crystals were missing, and there stood Roman, threatening the old owner of the shop with a “And if you talk about this…”

Naturally, Ruby strode up to right behind him, and kicked him in the back of the kneecap. He crumpled to the floor with an exaggerated wail.

“Good Grimm Red. I think the only thing I’m not safe from is you. How _did_ you find me? If the coppers had you sniffing out my scent, we’d be done with.”

Ruby crouched down and looked him in his eye, “I just have that kind of _pure dumb luck_.”

Roman snorted and reached out to tumble Ruby off her perch and onto him on the floor, “Oh you better believe you do.” He craned his head around Ruby’s to stare at his henchmen, “You can go _o_ o,” He flicked his wrist, “I’ll be _right_ behind you.”

He swooped Ruby up onto his back as he stood up, and she obligingly wrapped her arms around his neck, having used up her energy in the race there and the initial attack. If he wanted to carry her instead of making her walk, she was completely fine with that.

He calmly walked out of the store, winding his way around the dark streets. As they made their way to the harbor, Roman said in a low tone that made the fine hairs on the back of Ruby’s neck stand up, “Now Red, since we are finally alone… how about you tell me how your night went?”


	9. Suffering makes the Heart Fonder?

Ruby stilled and took in her surroundings. Everyone was home for the day at the waterfront, the vague hint of fish still lingering, even from their stance on the wall above. The same wall Ruby almost fell from… last night? It seemed much longer ago.

Ruby slid from Roman’s lax grip and landed on her feet in front of him. Staring up into his one revealed eye, colored green as the moss in the deep forests surrounding Beacon, she evaluated him. Roman was, well, he was a criminal for one. And he had violent tendencies, oh certainly. But why was she… letting herself get pushed around? She had been on the brink of exhaustion all day, but the second she thought that he was in trouble, she found him.

Was he a Qrow? Uncle Qrow was not… the best person overall. He may be her favorite uncle, only uncle, but Ruby knew that he wasn’t exactly a role model. He was violent, a drunk, crass, and a _hunter_. He didn’t rise above himself, but rose to help others. And he loved them Their small little family. Ruby knew that unquestionably. A gut feeling that had never served her wrong. Just like it telling her that right now, she was not in danger. Maybe she will be in the future. Maybe Roman will tur on a coin. But right now in this moment, she had nothing to fear.

“I was with Mercury. Video games and candy, you know, just hanging out.”

Roman snorted, “You have a thing for taming us, huh? I doubt Mercury has ever ‘just hung out’ with anyone, ever. He was probably going crazy thinking of how to entertain you.”

He hid his smirk with his hand and let a few more breathy laughs escape.

Ruby crossed her arms, still staring at Roman in the dark. The moon was slowly rising, but it would be another hour yet before it hung high in the velvet sky.

“What were _you_ doing? I remember you kicking me out.”

Roman took her hand gently and started leading her away from the edge and towards the warehouses, “What do you think Red? Had to prepare for tonight. Or at least the finishing touches. Heists take time.”

Ruby sputtered, face flushing, “I-I know that! Maybe it’d go faster if I helped next time!”

She gasped and slapped her free hand over her rebelling mouth.

Roman raised his lone eyebrow, “Would you really now? Nice and pure Red, hasn’t even stolen a cookie or kissed a guy, want to help in armed robbery?”

“No! No, don’t… no just no.” She was so used to offering help that it just slipped out.

Roman turned away and… was that a glint of disappointment?! He knew her better that that!

“Hey Red! Don’t scream!”

“Wait! Wh-!”

He kicked open a seemingly innocuous door as they were passing ad shoved Ruby inside.

Ruby instinctively shoved her hands up in surrender, jerking Roman’s arm up with it as she screwed her eyes shut.

In the dead silence, Ruby slowly cracked her eyes open, a circle of shotgun barrels surrounding her. She squeaked and jumped back, tripping over Roman, who was standing directly behind her. He spun her into his arms, placing her between him and the barrels. … _He was using her as a meatshield! Just when she was going to hide behind him! What is the world coming to when boyfriends weren’t useful anymore?!_

Wait.

Scratch that.

Freeze frame.

“Yup. This is me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here.”

Muttering broke out among the goons, but not a single gun wavered.

“Move it. Move out of the way.” A broad-shouldered, barrel chested man pushed through the suits easily. He came face to face, or for Ruby, face to chest, with them and mussed up his slicked back dark hair. “Unholy Grimm, Torchwick. What’ve you gone dragged up this time? You’re just a kid yourself and you’ve brought another kid into this mess with you? This club ain’t a daycare.”

Roman let go of Ruby and grasped her shoulders, smoothly keeping her in place as he sidestepped, “Junior! What is up my friend?”

“No and no. Go back to your cave and bring your friend with you.” The man, ‘Junior’, was about to turn back around when Roman started speaking quickly,

“Junior, come on. It’s a great offer. We get men, you get money, maybe even a little bit of extra dust. Everyone wins, except Schnee of course.” His placating tone curled into a sneer concluding his spiel.

Ruby stood by as they haggled, bewildered more than anything, and they still hadn’t put those guns _down!_ _Why_ did Roman bring her here?! She didn’t belong, unless she was to bring down this deal herself. And that wasn’t very likely as a slightly gusty wing could knock her out. Ruby started inching towards the door when a click cut through the conversation.

Roman, Junior, and Ruby focused on the man who adjusted his aim and disengaged the safety… at her. At _her_! There was a man pointing a gun at her head and all she had was a-actually nothing. She had absolutely nothing to fight with. And she was pants at hand combat. She should really look that up when- if she got back to Beacon. Where was that fifteen minutes ago when she felt completely safe with Roman?!

Almost in slow motion, as Ruby took a step back, Roman took a step forward, slamming the hilt of his cane down on the man’s wrist. She watched with wide eyes as his finger closed around the trigger, his aim going wide as a searing pain burnt across her arm. Ruby looked down in disbelief at the blooming red stains appearing on the ragged tear on her bicep, her mind not entirely registering the amount of blood bubbling up from the wound, temporarily blocking out the pain that she was sure would cripple that arm for a good while.

Then she looked up, and Roman was there, placing a hand on her back and lowering her to the ground. He knelt down next to her and quietly whispered, “tell anyone about my aura and I’ll make sure to get you back double.” Pushing his fringe back behind his ear, the green of Roman’s eyes drained o pure white, as he activated his semblance. Ruby had a shock of déjà vu, the exact same feeling that Yang snuggled her with settled over her. The searing pain on her arm faded, ad wen se turned to look, the skin knitted itself back together, then her white blouse, then her jacket, and eventually even the bloodstains.

Roman threaded his fingers through his bangs in a rough approximation of what it had been, and turned to Junior, “I think you owe me those men now”

 

Thirty men acquired and message relayed on where exactly to send them, Ruby and Roman were on their way… somewhere.

Roman hooked an arm around Ruby’s waist and tugged her in close. She stumbled and fell into his side mumbling, “So what was that?”

He huffed a little and said to the empty air, his turned face not quite hiding his red ears, “laugh it up will you. The criminal’s semblance is fixing.”

Ruby laid her head against his shoulder as their pace slowed, Roman accommodating more of her weight as they traversed the warehouse district, “I don’t know. I like it, it’s kind of cute. Besides, I certainly benefited from it.”

“Please don’t call me cute” came out in a strained voice.

Ruby nudged him, “Wasn’t calling you cute, talking to your semblance here.”

Roma stopped, and naturally so did Ruby, “I just saved you a considerable amount of pain, and you aren’t calling me cute? Offended. Very offended.”

Ruby stepped in front of Roman to face him, “Oh really? _Very_ offended?”

He looked down at her through a half-lidded eye, “Extremely.” Leaning down he studied her, and she never broke his gaze.

 Roman placed his lips over Ruby’s, her _just_ feeling the chapped pressure before he jerked back. He turned away quickly as did she, both faces aflame.

She could hear him scrambling, “That was weird, and adrenaline. Yeah, adrenaline. Let’s not do that again.”

Ruby felt like her mind was in a blender, thoughts were going so fast. She squeaked, “Agreed.”

A door across the way slammed open, spilling light onto the street.

And silhouetted in the doorframe, hand on cocked hip and umbrella jabbed threateningly at Roman, was Neo.


	10. A Short Intermission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one, just some housekeeping before the fun arc begins.

Neo’s hand fluttered incoherently fast as soon as it left her hip, Roman’s face flushed an even darker red at whatever he saw and he sputtered out,

“Neo. No. That’s not what. Yes she knows. That’s all. It was nothing!” he squeaked out the last sentence.

_Nothing? What was no-unless he meant what just happened, because that was definitely something,_ Ruby thought furiously. But what she said was, “What time is it exactly? I kind of raced out without telling anyone, as you do.”

Roman blinked, looked at her, and his recovering face blushed, _blushed_ , again, and he quickly walked inside, pushing Neo gently to the side.

Shaking her head over her shoulder, Neo sighed ad took out her scroll, holding up the blinking screen for Ruby. She had left around five and the display said eight-thirty. _Eight-Thirty!_

“I am so dead. Beyond dead. Completely eviscerated.” Ruby whined, dropping to the ground. Huh, the ground felt nice. Too nice, she might just sleep here and never get back up, the dorm and waiting execution was so far away.

Neo smiled and trotted over to Ruby, popping open her umbrella. She put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder and the world shattered around them. As the jagged edges of reality fit itself back together, Ruby started to make out the hallway of the dorm building. She twisted to thank Neo but the woman was already gone.

Ruby pushed herself to her feet and opened the door, head low, wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed and avoid the whole mess.

As soon as Yang cried out, “Ruby!-”

Ruby interrupted her, too tired to lie, “I’m friends with Torchwick. I got shot. That’s where I was.”

Blake snorted, “We know that you were with Curtis, we saw you. You don’t have to try and be funny right now, we know you’re exhausted.”

Weiss rolled over in her bunk to join in the conversation, “Curtis Wheels actually.”

Blake rolled her eyes, “But her name is _Curtis_. It works.”

“Yeah but it doesn’t feel right. It just _feels_ like it should be Curtis Wheels.” Fired back Weiss.

Yang cut in, “ _Anyways,_ we saw you round the corner talking to Curtis Wheels. We figured that you ran into her and decided to hang out. _It’s fine_ , you can have friends other than us, you don’t have to lie to us.”

Blake added quietly, “We’re here for you”

And Weiss finished, “Yeah, fearless leader!”

Ruby blinked, “Weiss you…”

Weiss slightly smiled, “I got over it, besides I would probably have to switch to flats if I wanted to be a leader and I’m not giving these bad boys up.”

Everyone got into, or climbed into bed, and all was quiet and dark until Yang,

“Hey did you hear what Cardin did to Jaune today?”

The room was silent, then Blake muttered darkly, “Yang, Ruby needs her sleep”

“Oh right! Sorry baby sis! Night guys!” she pouted, “Even though its only nine a clock.”

 

Ruby slept like a rock that night, her body plunging her into the depths of unconsciousness and not releasing her until it got its rest.

When she woke up, no one else was in the dorm room, just a sticky note left stuck to her forehead. Her eyes crossed watching it flutter down when she sat up, the fine handwriting reading, “You look like you needed the sleep, meet up by the air docks in the courtyard if you wake up before ten!” with a tiny snowflake as a signature.

Ruby slid off the bed and hit the floor, groggily checking her scroll. Ignoring the old urgent notifications from Roman, she focused on the time. Nine fifty-two. She may be going on day three of her uniform-, no! Absolutely not! This uniform was going to be changed, even if she hasn’t done laundry for a while and had no spare uniforms… well then, she’ll just wear, -it’s a field trip, she can wear her battle skirt!

“And now its nine fifty-seven… I can make it, totally.” If she used her semblance that is. Not expressly forbidden outside of training, but frowned upon to be used in the halls.

 

At exactly ten o clock, Yang was bouncing her foot and nervously swiveling her head when Ruby broke out of her speed. Halting her movement, Yang broke out into a grin, “About time sleeping gorgeous!”

“Ha ha Yang, where are we going?” Ruby dryly replied, feeling more accommodating and refreshed than she had in days. Grabbing Yang’s now outstretched hand, they boarded the aircraft and stepped inside the cabin just in time for the door to close and the take-off procedure to begin.

Weiss and Blake were already grouped together with team JNPR, leaning against the glass as the school fell below.  Yang waved her free hand in the air to garner attention, “She made it guys! Weis you can stop trying to take over as leader now!”

Weiss sputtered, “I did no- would never!”

Yang threw her head back and laughed at the flustered girl, as Blake muttered quietly to Weiss, “She’s joking with you.”

Ruby stared at their group, Yang still laughing, Blake and Weiss whispering quickly to each other, and felt a warm fuzzy feeling nestle in her chest.

This was where she belonged.


	11. And Now, A Word from Jaune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have serious writers block. Usually I get over it by writing in class, but with midterms I actually have to pay attention, what.

Jaune may not have been the most intelligent, book-smart that is. He never was top of his class, physically or on paper tests, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t _smart_. It just meant that when it came to memorization and just damn putting the effort in, he just sometimes wasn’t all there. He liked to believe he was people smart though, not the best, but smart enough. He knew that Weiss didn’t _hate_ him, but he knew that he was barely tolerated, just as he knew that Pyrrha was the truest friend he had. It was less of an obligation that was born of being partners and more of an acceptance of him. Which when he first realized, took him a bit for a loop.  So Jaune didn’t always know why people felt like they did, but he could recognize changes in people easily enough. People smart, right. Back in his hometown, he was never the most popular, or even slightly, so recognizing changing moods really saved him from more than one locker. Though it didn’t seem to help him with Cardin. Cardin never changed, he was always… angry. Always.

Lately, ever since he pissed Pyrrha off (and she was hurt, and her mood fluctuated quickly, but he knew that she was pissed, no one dealt with the way he did wouldn’t be), Cardin had gotten worse. Their ‘deal’ enabled him to act however he wanted and unless Jaune particularly felt like completely giving up and dropping out, he couldn’t do anything about it.

But today wasn’t about him. Cardin, he could deal with Cardin, has been dealing with Cardins his whole life. But Ruby had Yang, and Yang most likely kept Cardins away from her little sister her whole life.

Today was field trip day, into the forest to gather sap for some reason, and Ruby was out of it. Majorly out of it. And Cardin, the asshole, tripped Ruby on her way out of the ship. Apparently, he had found his favorite for the day.

Jaune caught her arm so that she wouldn’t faceplant into the dead leaved scattered on the ground, and yanked Ruby upright.

He looked up from Ruby’s quiet “thanks” when Pyrrha materialized next to them. She steadied Ruby and gazed at Jaune, emerald eyes sparking indignantly,

“Are you both okay? It will be a wonder if he does not get kicked out by his attitude before our years are up.”

Jaune snorted, “It’ll be a wonder if he doesn’t get _kicked_ because of his attitude.” He looked down at Ruby’s dazed expression, her eyes trailing a falling golden leaf, and made a decision. Nerds gotta stick together after all. “Hey Pyrrha, could you make sure that Ren doesn’t try to get rid of Nora and pass it off as a Grimm attack? I gotta talk to Rubes for a second”

Pyrrha glanced over at the rest of their team, Nora already bouncing a mile a minute as Ren juggled the glass jars, trying to avoid being elbowed by flailing arms. “I will provide backup, join us soon Jaune. And… I will need to talk to you later.”

She waved slightly as she turned and grasped Nora, steering her towards a copse to begin their mission.

Jaune realized that he himself was still grasping onto Ruby, and quickly released her. The rest of her team had stopped about a hundred paces ahead when they realized they were missing someone. Jaune could see Yang’s mood wavering, she obviously wanted to storm on over, but also wanted to give Ruby space. People smart, remember?

Jaune waved them on and they reluctantly started moving, Yang continually glancing over her should back at them.

Ruby worried her lip and look up at Jaune, “So… what did you need to talk to me about?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Oh geez, this is awkward. Um, so you know. I have three sisters. They’re all very special and beautiful, and I would never say anything bad about them, but you know, they have moods sometimes. And as their punching bag, I need to know these things so-”   

Ruby glared, “Jaune. Point. And it better not be the point that I think you’re trying to make.”

He blanched, “No, nothing about, not about _that_. I just mean, you’re acting all melancholy sometimes, then you remember something and get happy, and what I’m trying to say is, who kissed you and are you alright with it? Because you don’t seem like you know.”

Jean, JoAnne, and Jenny all had their fair share of experience. As bitter rivals for the house resources of mirrors, food, and clothes, and not to mention Grandfather’s antique weapons, they tended to rant to the non-competitor who could not threaten their status, Jaune.  And so, Jaune knew everything from who in the village was just terrible in bed, to the fact that the baker’s son could not shoot an arrow to save his life, despite his family’s long line of sharp shooters. He was not a spy master in the making, as most information flowed in one year and out the other, but what stick was what made the three emotional.

Jean (who would fight whatever breathed in her general direction, and living with her, Jaune did quite often) found herself in a predicament one day. She had the largest crush on the librarian’s daughter, as she could wield her mace most devastatingly, but it was the baker’s other child that returned her affection. But, Ruby didn’t seem conflicted. Well, she seemed conflicted, but not the painful one where any choice would end up hurting someone. Well- no. No there was no way this was a love triangle.

JoAnne was the baker’s favorite, as she had more talent for making the bread rise in her pinky than did either of his wannabe hunters. She also wielded a bow better than either, so sometimes Jaune wondered if she was in quite the right family. JoAnne also quite fearsomely rejected any suitors, claiming that she would pierce the heart of any individual who tried to take hers. Her blonde hair, warm brown eyes, and delectable concoctions made many foolish enough to approach, and the hospital was just grateful for more revenue. Ruby also didn’t seem skittish, like someone had forced affections onto her. Her knuckles were scraped like she had been in a good fight, and he had overheard the cleaning staff talking about getting blood out of her sleeve, but knowing Ruby, she got into a tussle with one of the many ruffians lurking around Vale. Such a do-gooder.

But Jenny. She might be the one. Jenny’s skill with the quill was undeniable, but her skill with the boys, not so much. She could write prose that would make a hardened hunter cry with sadness, but plop a pretty face in front of her and she was reduced to muttering and stumbling. She was the only one in the family that Jaune thinks he might actually be related to. Fletcher Wannatbe, a fox faunus who was as good with words as he was terrible at school, somehow befriended the nerdy, book loving Jenny. He finally kissed her after she cleaved a Grimm for him, and she walked around stumbling for two days, red in the face, either grinning or lashing out at JoAnne, all her nervous energy pouring out into a fight.

“So which one of your friends kissed you?” Jaune laughed nervously, “It wasn’t Weiss was it?”

Ruby flushed deeply, shaking her head. She looked him dead in the eye, “It was Roman Torchwick.”


	12. When did Jaune Get Smart?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took longer than it should have due to health reasons, but the next one should be out fairly soon.

Mr. and Mrs. Swartznberg were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Mrs. Swartznberg ran a mildly successful tutoring service, while Mr. Swartznberg tended to the house after an arrow-headed hawk Grimm put him out of commission as a hunter.

He was very proud of his little home, a respectable townhouse that he shared with very respectable neighbors.  Their trim was white- not eggshell, good Grimm Agatha what are you suggesting- and the shutters a nice blue to match the sky above, when it bothered to behave of course.

And standing in the exact center of their neatly trimmed lawn, planted Mrs. Swartznberg’s pride. A little apple tree, sure to bloom any day now, reached up into the sky, shading a cute little bench that she had spent many a day reading under.

Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Swartznberg were a perfectly happy, perfectly normal older couple.

So then of course, Mrs. Swartznberg’s glass shattering shriek that would have startled the birds out of their nests if the fire hadn’t already done so, was a perfectly reasonable reaction to the explosion.

Roman hated perfectly respectable people. They were the worst.

 

 

Ruby watched Jaune pale, then recover quickly, wiping the back of his glove across his sweaty forehead.

“Yeah okay. Acclaimed criminal. Got it. At least he’s not like _forty_ or something.” Jaune attempted to joke.

She had been wound up so tight that it startled a laugh that barked out of her. “No! Definitely not! He’s like. Eighteen or something! You know, old, but not like _old_.”

Jaune shoved her shoulder lightly, “Hey I’m about to turn eighteen. Watch it.”

She nudged her shoulder into his arm and forced him to stumble pack a few paces, “You watch it.”

Jaune rubbed his arm and frowned at her, “So you like him enough to joke about his age, and he likes you enough to kiss you. Putting aside the wanted dangerous criminal and everything, what’s the problem? From my experience with three sisters—”

“Seven, you have seven sisters Jaune.”

“No I don’t. Four of them are dead to me.” He patted her head condescendingly, “Now tell big brother Jaune what’s the matter.”

Ruby pouted, which the more she thought about her problem, pulled down into a harsh frown, “I don’t know. Well, I kind of know. What if it was a mistake? I mean—”

“No one gets kissed ‘by mistake’. Unless its anime.”

“Who’s interrupting who now? Stop talking. I don’t really know my own feelings either. I get worried about him, and want to hang out with him, I mean he’s a friend, and pretty good at being one an—”

Jaune sang, badly and very annoyingly, “~Crush”

She swatted at him again, “I’m at this point of my life where I’m emotional and stressed and worried and yes Jaune, maybe have a crush, and I’m confused and want it all to just, stop, for a minute. Or two. Maybe a month.”

“Ruby. Not to point out the obvious, but you are two years younger than anyone else here. No one would care if you decided to take a break and swan off for a month. Go on a quest, gain experience. Heck if you don’t want to take off school, take up an internship with a hunter and travel with them for a little while. Come back and have them sign a few papers, boom you were never gone. Just like, come back before any serious team related adventures.”

Ruby cocked her head, suddenly a world of possibilities opening up the dank dark room where her mind had been spinning, “I-I. I can do that?”

“Yes you can”

 

 

Ruby meant to go and ask Jaune later about how to go about doing all of that stuff, but then Cardin had to be stupid and then Jaune had to go fight a Grimm. She should have been expecting that really.

Yang didn’t have any older siblings who would know about the system, Weiss would see it as her trying to escape (she was, kinda), and Ruby was pretty sure that Blake was an only child. Or at least a very quiet one. It wasn’t until she was laying in her swaying bunk that Ruby even thought about searching her scroll for information. If it really was as common as Jaune seemed to thing, there should be a tab on the school homepage for it right?

After a few minutes of poking around, Ruby found it. Under the headline, _Internships and Other Ways to Escape_ , was a line of text _Ask Glynda Goodwitch_. Useful. Quite useful really.

 

Early in the morning on Saturday, so around ten, Ruby tip toed out of her still snoring room. Professor Goodwitch seemed like the punctual type, she probably has been typing away at her paperwork since six. So when Ruby knocked on the door to her office, she was not at all expecting to hear a quiet, “This way” from behind her.

Ruby spun and was greeted with the sight of what surely was the textbook definition of a hangover. Lounging on the couch, shoulders hunched up, hair askew, wearing a flowing blouse and loose pants, and cradling a cup of steaming coffee, was what Ruby thought was Glynda Goodwitch? Maybe? She had never seen the good Professor any less than immaculate.

The person opened their mouth and asked a hoarse question, “What do you need Ms. Rose?”

Oh right. She was here for a reason. Maybe a little too loudly she nervously said, “I need an internship!”

Professor Goodwitch rubbed her temples before pulling out her scroll on the lowest brightness Ruby had ever seen. She fiddled with it nimbly for a few seconds before her bloodshot eyes et Ruby’s gaze, “I sent you the list of people looking for an intern. Send me an email on which one you think is best, and I’ll arrange a meeting. And next time, please email ahead.” The professor groaned and rested her head on the backrest, closing her tired eyes.

Ruby’s scroll binged with a notification and she excitedly took off for the courtyard, wondering if any of them were as cool as her Uncle Qrow.

 

An adventure! This was just what she needed to get back on track. To have a proper adventure though, she had to pick just the right mentor.

Opening the email that had been sent, Ruby was greeted with a wall of text detailing the internship requirements. Skipping that, there was always going to be time to figure that out, detailed profiles of four different mentors displayed. Next to their general information was a picture, and what they were looking for. Surprisingly, only one of them had been team leader, a small petite woman with wild blue hair.

_Karl Nexas_ , thirty-four, graduated for fourteen years, and skilled in double sickle fighting. His deep blue eyes stared out of the picture at Ruby, his mouth clamped shut as if someone had told him specifically not to smile. Striking against his dark complexion was his brilliant white hair curling tightly and bouncing out from his head.

Underneath his short description was short text of his ideal student: _Skill with people not required. Basic defensive maneuvers and ability to subdue Grimm a must. Must be willing to travel. Please have an open mind and I can teach the needed skills._

Well that was short. And to the point. And exciting! What kind of a hunter was he, probably one hunting Grimm, controlling the population, saving villages, being a hero!

_Ann-Marie Lucretia_ , twenty-four, three years graduated, uses flash semblance to great effect in battle. The woman who had jumped out at Ruby earlier grinned up in her photo from her perch on top a very dead Grimm, holding up its head much in the way one would show off a fish. Where the eyes in the prize used to be were now black and burned out.

It was sick enough that Ruby had to swallow and scroll on to the student listing.

_Enjoy the thrill of battle. Be able to entertain yourself, I’m not a babysitter. Please don’t apply if you’re squeamish. Just don’t. Bring sunglasses._

Brisk. She was probably a nice person. Just one that didn’t put up with any shit. Ruby wondered if she would be like that after four years of dealing with her team.

_Baley Frisk_ , fifty-two, thirty years graduated, guerilla fighting tactics. A grizzled older man in a pale yellow uniform smiled softly up from the screen. His combat boots were worn, khaki knees stained with dirt and grass, and despite the wornness of his clothing, stood tall and proud against the setting sun.

_All I need is a student with an enthusiastic attitude and one who is willing to get dirt on their personage._

He seems… nice. Too nice. What was such a pleasant man doing killing creatures all the time? Him appearing so nice was creating more questions than he probably intended.

_Alexandro_ , twenty-eight, graduated five years ago, enjoys gardening. Dark piercing eyes glinted out beneath a straw hat in the photo, calloused hands gripping a solid steel shovel. The photo appeared to be taken out in the middle of a tornado in a dust field, for those were the only details that Ruby was somewhat sure of.

There was no description for a student, simply a scroll number.


	13. Oprah Gives Out Mentors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So again no Roman Action. They'll be some next chapter. He's just setting some things up.

 

“You’re what?!” Weiss screeched upon hearing Ruby state that she was leaving.

Ruby cringed, “It’s just for a month, I’ll be back before the tourney and everything! Promise!”

Yang sighed, “Ruby. It’s not that you’re leaving. It’s that you’re leaving without us. We’re a team.”

“I know! I know. It’s just… a bit much…” she mumbled to the ground.

Weiss snapped out, “Then you shouldn’t have been leader! You have to deal with your problems! Not run away from them like some damsel in distress!”

Blake had been sitting on her bed the whole time, glancing up from her novel every so often at the argumentative group. She finally spoke up, “Ruby. The email. Send it to me.”

Pulling out her scroll, Ruby did just that, the email already have been displayed so all it took were a few short movements to send it over. Just as she opened her mouth to ask a question, Blake raised a finger in silence.

As she flipped her screen around she said, “There are four mentors. Four of us. No reason to be jealous Weiss. We can all go.”

Weiss sputtered, “Je-jea-no! Never!” then she paused for a second hurriedly scanning the screen, “And I take the girl! No way am I being stuck with smelly boys for a whole month!”

“If we’re picking dibs then I totally call Alexandro! He seems the coolest by far! I mean guerrilla fighting tactics is cool an al—” Yang was cut off from her enthusiastic spiel by Blake,

“Baley’s mine.”

“Alright then. Doesn’t seem your type but hey, no judging.” She joked, pulling up the information on her chosen mentor on her won screen, as Blake had sent to email to everyone.

Blake turned back to Ruby, “Karl is yours. Unless you have a problem with him?”

“No! No he’s fine! I was going to maybe go with him anyways?” Ruby looked around in bewilderment at her group engrossed in their descriptions, “And we’re cool? This is it? You just didn’t want to be left behind?”

Weiss glanced up from her morbid fascination with this sickening picture, “Well yeah. Duh.” She reached into her set of drawers and pulled out a sunglasses case. Sliding them onto her face she announced, “Boom. Done. I’ve fulfilled the requirements. Let’s go.”

 

 

Glynda Goodwitch, looking much more respectably put together now that it was 4 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon, looked down upon the group of students lounging on the couches outside her office. She raised an eyebrow, “All of you? Usually just the team leader goes to bring back skills to share with the group.  Are you sure?”

Yang nodded, unusually serious, “Of course. All or none of us are going.”

“All right then. The interviews will be” she checked her pocket watch, “in about three minutes. All of them will be held at the same time, as requested, and provided it goes well, should b e finished at the same time. Ms. Rose, my office, Ms. Belladonna, office 103, Ms. Xiao Long, office 105, and Ms. Schnee, the courtyard. And be careful, she’s a handful.”

The reality of what she was about to commit to just starting to settle in, Ruby stood up on slightly shaking knees. Oh she knew that she could pass any physical with flying colors, but would he like her? He has to, they’ll be together for a long time! And what about Roman! Surely one on one she wouldn’t be able to sneak away! Already she had been ignoring Roman’s texts for three day. What if he got fed up and found her? Why ad she thought this was a good idea!

But then the thought of open fields and adventure and the thrill of fighting teased her mind, and Ruby knew it was the right thing. Sitting cooped up in a school wasn’t going to help her make any decisions. But action might.

Pushing open the heavy wooden door, Ruby looked around the room. Seeing nobody, she started to lower herself into a chair when a man materialized on the desk in from of her, jolting her heart nearly out of her chest.

A deep voice, “Did I tell you to sit down?”

Ruby leapt out of the seat, “I am so sorry. It’s just— there was no one there—and then there was, and so, I just— well yeah”

He started to chuckle, his pearly white teeth glinting in the fading light, “I’m just messing with you. Doing my own little impression of little Ann. She’s a bitch. Glynda told you guys that right? I feel so sorry for whoever gets her.” He waved his hand dismissively, “You can sit by the way.”

Still trying to calm her heart, Ruby gently lowered herself into the chair, watching the man for any sign of dissatisfaction, “Um. Professor Goodwitch told us that she was a handful”

He roared this time with laughter. Wiping a tear from the corner of his eye he snorted and said, “Aw Glynda. Always good for a laugh. Handful. Dear Grimm. What a way with words.”

“Mr. Nexas?”

He put up a hand to stop her, “It’s Karl. Always will be unless were undercover or somethin’. Just hearing Mr. Nexas makes me think I’m about to be hit with a ruler.”

She paused, looking at him, and he rubbed his forehead exasperatedly, “Speak kid. I don’t bite. I mean, I do, but definitely not with someone your age. That’s a sex joke kid, don’t mention it to Glynda.”

“Okay well. Karl. What do you need to know about me before you decide whether to accept me or not?”

He snorted again, “Oh child, I already know the answer to that question. This session is for you to figure it out. It seems like you’re the only one who went into this session with no clue. I spent the last few days figuring out every single thing about you. Let’s just say, I’m on the surface of the sun, and you’re still in a dark closet.”

Ruby’s heart sank. She tried searching for him on the net but nothing came up. She figured that she would be able to discover him as a person in this meeting but it seemed like she had grossly miscalculated. There’s no way he would want someone who failed so badly just on the first trial.

She could at least try something, “Isn’t there anything you want to know before you kick me out?”

His jovial smile morphed into a baring of teeth, “There is one thing I’d like to know before we spend a whole month together. How’d a clueless kid like you get so high up in the White Fang?”


	14. A Very Hot Interlude

 

Ruby blinked. “Excuse me?”

Karl rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Oh. You are a ditz. How old are you, sixteen?”

“Fifteen. And I don’t know where you draw your conclusions but I haven’t joined any gangs or anything! I mean, sure I’ve been near a few illegal things but _I_ haven’t done anything illegal. I mean I don’t th—“

“I’m going to stop you right there. Forget I said anything. This’ll give me something to do.” A gleam appeared in his eye and he tossed something at Ruby. She looked down to catch it and when she glanced back up he was gone. The little stone had a message etched in, ‘See you soon kiddo!’ and a number.

Ruby stayed in stunned silence for a moment, “What just happened?”

Team RWBY stumbled out of their respective areas at the exact same time. While Ruby appeared unhurt, just confused, Weiss was caked in dirt, squinting in the dim hallway light, and had a gash running down her arm, tearing her designer jacket. Blake appeared quite at ease with the whole situation, calmly munching on a scone, and Yang was, well she was whooping and hollering for the world to hear about how cool her mentor is.

“He is just the best! He was all, use your head not your fists! But also like, can move things with his mind! So cool!”

 

 

“Hey Ruby? Come with me for a second.”

Once they were almost at the dorm Yang took Ruby’s arm and waved goodbye to the others, mouthing ‘sister time’.

“What exactly prompted this. I mean, I’m all for doing school that’s not tests and exams and all, but this is your dream. Why aren’t you wanting to spend every single second here?”

Ruby sighed, looking at Yang with a wry smile, “First of all, being a kick ass huntress and saving people is my dream, not _school_. But do you want the long or short answer?”

“Give me the short answer, then we can go to a café and you can tell me the long version. And remember, if it’s something bad, like really bad, I’m familialy obligated to help you.”

Ruby started down the path to the city and pulled her arm out of Yang’s grasp, linking them instead, “A guy kissed me and I freaked. Then somehow I started questioning my life and how long I have left, and I  decided I wanted to get away and _do_ something. You know I’ve always been a tactical learner.”

“Gotta love those streams of consciousness that fuel our best decisions.”

 

 

The Cluck’s Café sat in the heart of the city, surrounded by a dust store, a book shop, and a weapons seller. Red shiny brick that was older than any resident made the walkway reminiscent of an old tale still whispered about from the world before. Yang and Ruby were among few as they made their way inside in the dawning twilight.

Aside from drinks and small pastries, the Cluck’s Café’s main attraction was their unique friendly seating service. And so, when Yang and Ruby requested a three seater, the lowest seat number, they were paired with a young woman, nose buried in a foreign book. As the pair approached, she looked up, and went right back to her book, then one eye widened and shot back up.

The woman pushed her hair blocking her vision back and glared at Ruby. “You,” she hissed, “Have ruined my evening and forced me to the lovely yet wretched hole in the wall café, and now have the audacity to show up here?” She grabbed her black military jacket and slid it on over her dark red crop top, huffing and leaving the table to strut up to the counter, leaving her book behind.

Yang bristled, “How dare she talk to you that way! What the frick is her problem! You couldn’t have done anything—“

Ruby stared at the woman. Not a single thing about her registered. The long black hair, the laced shorts, Ruby hadn’t even seen the sharp heel the woman was wearing except in stores. Most huntresses wouldn’t push it so far as to wear stilettoes while fighting.

But, “Yang I’m curious. Can we sit and talk it out with her maybe? I mean, she has to come back and get her book.”

Yang shrugged and pulled out a bar stool, taking a swig from her orange soda as Ruby sipped her milk, both of them not inconspicuously staring at the woman as her triple whipped cream caramel high fat frappe was being made.

“You think she?”

“Oh yeah, she’s definitely evil. They make up for their black heart by having a sweet tooth.”

Ruby broke contact with the back of the woman’s head and tilted her head in question at Yang, “What?”

Yang shrugged, “Look it up. If they’re not drinking or smoking in movies, the villain has a lollipop or something.”

“I’ll have you know that lollipops are disgusting sugar factories. Must be why Neo loves them. She’s always trying to swap out Roman’s cigars.”

Ruby immediately hunched her shoulders at the unexpected voice from behind. Turning slowly she saw the woman, more composed this time, impatiently taking her seat while delicately licking whipped cream off the top of her drink.

Ruby narrowed her eyes, ‘that can’t be too common of a name’… “You don’t happen to know Roman Torchwick? Criminal mastermind and ginger supreme?”

The woman snorted into her whipped cream, blowing the frothy substance across her face, “Oh my Grimm, I am telling him that you refer to him like that. The ginger supreme part, not the mastermind, because he sucks.”

She hummed in agreement. It’s what the tall nerd deserves.

Ruby looked to her side and saw Yang looking utterly lost, “You okay there sis?”

Yang shrugged, “So you two _do_ know each other or what?”

The woman frowned, tugging on the roll of napkins, “Never met before in my life.” She stopped, “Oh right.” Her mirthful countenance morphed into a glare, “I almost forgot that I have beef with you. And I never forget the beef.”

“Is this about me—”

“Yes! You’ve been ignoring Roman, so Mercury thought he’d be able to get to you, but you ignored both of them and now they’re both sulking, and Emerald ready to cut a bastard. I got out of teenage mood fest so fast. Neo’s around here somewhere. She followed me after Roman ignored her attempt at lollipop reconciliation.”

Ruby tentatively took out her scroll and opened the messages tab in the first time in forever. The screen lit up ‘482 unread messages’. She immediately closed it and threw it in Yang’s bag. The woman across from them groaned and took an obnoxious loud sip of frappe.

She pointed across the table, “You two. Are coming with me. And you’re going to cheer the dumbasses up. And then you’re going to leave and presumably ignore them again for another week until they fall into a slump and you run into me until I take over the world and lock all of you and your friends in a room together so I never have to see anyone again. Or until the world ends. Whichever comes first.”

Yang pointed right back, “Yeah, okay, who are you anyways?!”

She sat down her rainbow sprinkle drink, and gave a slow sly smile, “My name is Cinder Fall, and you should be scared shitless of me.”


	15. In Which Yang Makes a BAng

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so incredibly sorry for the late and short chapters. I have a lot of excuses but I'm not going to bore you with them. Also, Yang has a crush? That's gonna be a thing. Maybe.

Yang shiftily looked at Ruby out of the corner of her eye, Ruby squirmed. “Yeah so kiddo, this guy who kissed you, didn’t happen to also be a wanted criminal? I thought I was getting some dirt, but this is…” She slapped her hands on the table bursting out into a grin, “AMAZING!”

Cinder inhaled sharply, sputtering frappe bubbles, “HE what?! That nerd!”

Yang grinned toothily, grabbing Ruby by the shoulder, “You got an awful lot of explaining to do but I’m excited! Let’s go!”

Ruby was hauled off of her feet and pushed to the door, as Cinder swiped a few napkins and followed closely with her drink.

“Do you rugrats even know where you have to go?”

Yang raised a free arm and slugged Cinder on the shoulder, gently. “Not in the slightest! Which is why we have you right?!”

Cinder closed her eyes for a brief moment, slowly inhaling another drag of frappe, “Yes. That is why you have me.” She opened her eyes, the fire in them snapping angrily at Yang, who stared back, raising her arm defiantly again.

A shadow loomed behind and Ruby turned in Yang’s grasp to see Neo dressed very inconspicuously in a grey Beacon hoodie and sunglasses, still toting her large very ornately pink umbrella open over her shoulder.

Neo flipped her umbrella over their heads and reality fractured. In the next instant, pieces slotted themselves back together and Ruby blinked. They were standing in an alley, mice scuttling over the cracked drab concrete.

Cinder turned, her smile sharp and menacing, frappe nowhere in sight. “Now what are we to do with you… Yang was it?”

Neo tilted her head and smiled, tapping her umbrella against Ruby’s shoulder and ushering her away from Yang’s side. Ruby stumbled back, confused, before surging forward to grasp Yang’s hand. “Hey!”

Yang growled, “What to do with me? I’m just here to kick ass and take names. And I know everybody’s names.”

Cinder frowned, her hand suddenly lighting up in flame. Yang’s gauntlets activated, whirring through their warm up mechanism, when a window above was slammed open, causing her to jolt in surprise and let off a blast that hit the wall opposite, singing the end of Cinder’s hair. She gaped in shock, running her fingers through the still smoking ends.

“Hey losers! You mind not fighting in my alleyway?!” A large man leaned out the window, pulling back with an exasperated groan when he glanced a head of wild blonde hair.

Yang craned her neck back, face blossoming into a huge grin, “Junior! Great to see you!”

“Hey J-junior! Another!” Came from inside, followed by the sound of smashing glass.

Junior growled, “Babysitting, you know where the door is.” Before closing the window with a click. The slam of bars fitting themselves over the glass echoed in the sudden gale of silence.

Neo shrugged and took Ruby’s free hand, tugging the two of them into the warehouse turned bar.

It was, well it was a bar. Ruby had seen her fair share of them, having been tasked to go and fetch her uncle plenty of times, but this one was a bit higher class then where she usually found Qrow passed out. There wasn’t a broken bottle anywhere! Though… from the glass neck dangling from a certain ginger’s fingers as he slumped on the bar, that might soon change.

With a push from Neo and a catcall from Yang, who was still nervously edging around Cinder, Ruby strode up to Roman, hoping she exuded more confidence than she felt. She snatched the bottle and took a sip of it confidently, before her eyes grew wide and she struggled to not spit it out. “Grape soda?! What fresh hell is this! No wonder you look dead, this stuff steals souls! Though being a ginger, it’s not like you had one to begin with.”

Mercury, perched on the bar, smirked around his lollipop, “Yeah I know right?” He pulled the bright orange pop out, “You can always come over here and try this. I’d never steer you wrong with mandarin.”

Before Ruby could even think of a rebuttal, a loud gunshot cut through her thoughts. Roman had lifted his head up slightly and was quickly stashing a tiny gun back into his vest pocket as Junior stormed over, hell in his eyes.

“I asked you! And you swore! No guns! But n _o_ o _o_ what do you have? _A gun_! Thank god it hit that numbskull! If you get a scratch on that bar I’m taking my pound of flesh!”

Roman waved weakly at Junior, “Eye eye cap’tain”

Mercury swore under his breath, “Damn did it really?” He lifted his hip to raise his leg up but with a sad mechanical squealing it refused to comply. Ruby could see the large melted hole in the gears where his knee would be.

Like nothing had happened, like she hadn’t been ignoring them for forever, Ruby slapped Roman in the back of his head and chastised, “How has someone not killed you yet?”

Words were muffled but she could still make them out, “I’m a cockroach.”

A smile pulled at her lips, glancing at Mercury, “How am I supposed to be mad at him? He says shit like this himself.”

The soft fond look in her eyes made Mercury stutter, “I-I don’t know. I manage it q-quite easily.”

She hopped up onto the counter beside him, glancing down at his leg, “You gonna be alright?”

He smiled deviously, “Are you gonna be my nurse?” He leaned closer, “If I had you this worried over me every day I might stay injured forever.”

She nodded, “Right, so never show worry or affection for you ever and you’ll be immortal. Got it.”

Mercury whined and tossed his head onto her shoulder, “No _o_ o. You’re the worst. I love you but you’re the worst.”

A sharp intake of breath made Ruby look down to see how the cockroach was doing. His revealed eye was glaring stonily at Mercury. His hand was raised but caught in the vise grip of Mercury, who had sometime snuck a arm around her waist to pin him down.

“Oh my god Ruby. You have a harem.”

“Yang!”


	16. Sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been having so much trouble with this fanfic. You know the feeling when you want to read more, but the only one who can provide it is yourself? There's a place I'm trying to get to and I'm a bit stuck. So please have this sorry excuse for a chapter that's been sitting around because I'm still trying to figure out how to finish it. I'm so sorry this is taking so long, I really am trying. 
> 
> Also about the Yang joke, if it offends anyone I absolutely will take it down, it's kind of an in joke I used to make with my friends about me all the time.

“Ruby!” Yang shouted back childishly. Cinder raised her flaming hand threateningly and Yang leaned back from the heat, a cattish grin not leaving her face, “So are you a flaming gay? Because you’re leaving a lot of missed opportunities if you’re straight.”

Cinder’s flame flickered before dispersing. She used the hand to push back her bangs, disgruntled at something, “None of your business.” She glanced at Neo, who was curiously watching Ruby haul a drunken Roman off of the bar. Cinder huffed and turned on her heel, “Call me when all of the messes are cleaned up Neo. I’m going to find Cinder, her pet got loose.”

Yang sputtered, “Wait! I’m sorry! Got it! Don’t joke around about sexuality. Sorry! You don’t have to leave because of me.”

Cinder glanced over her shoulder and slammed the door behind her.

 

Back at the bar, Ruby was struggling not with the weight of Roman, he was pretty light considering, but with the drunk sloppy motions he was making. She would move forward a step, and he would try to spin. She would stop and he would stumble forward, throwing an arm through the air, waving to imaginary bystanders.

Mercury was a _huge_ help, heaving laughs at their progress and downing the remainder of Roman’s drinks.  “Looks like you guys are having a pretty dance there, can I join in?”

Then Ruby found herself saddled with two wobbling idiots, although one was clearly on purpose and thus much easier to be angry at.

Staring decisively at the concrete ground Ruby squared her shoulders, taking another step, blocking out the ginger hair falling over her shoulders, or the pressure from another head lolling on top of her, and spoke through gritted teeth, “I’m leaving. For a while. Maybe even until the Vytal festival. I don’t know.”

Roman abruptly quit flopping about and stilled, his quiet pants into her shoulder his only movement. Mercury snaked his arms tighter around her, subtly pushing Roman as he curled into her.


	17. Finally a touch of green

 

Ruby was abruptly fed up and glared at her favorite sister, who was all but ignoring her and making heart eyes at the door, “Yang!” She snapped, “A little help over here?!”

Yang bounded over, “Oh alright!” And punched Mercury in the face.

Ruby sank to the floor with Roman, “Oh my grimm.” As Yang and Mercury tussled, well not really tussled, more like fought, well battled, well, at least they weren’t going for blood? Yang smashed Mercury’s leg with a blast and suddenly Ruby had to revise her statement. If he had flesh and blood legs…

Mercury was losing the fight rapidly. It was evident that he didn’t have to fight with one usable leg very often. He collapsed onto the floor and side swiped Yang’s legs out from under her while yelling, “Uncle!”

Yang abruptly halted, jumping up from where she’d hit the floor and wiped her brow, “I’d love to fight you for real one time.” She handed him a piece of paper, “Hit me up when you got your leg back.”

“Will do,” Mercury grinned and took it, tucking it away in his vest. He glanced over at Neo, “A little help here?”

Neo sniffed and turned her head, purposefully striding past Mercury to take Roman from Ruby and shatter away. Mercury looked between the girls, Ruby exhausted and not moving from the floor bubbling with irritation and eyes glassy, and Yang, still pumped up on adrenaline from the fight.

Mercury raised an eyebrow, “Please?”

Yang laughed, “Aw alright you big baby,” and slung an arm around Mercury to prop him up. She and Mercury furiously whispered and then she turned to Ruby, “Don’t wait up for me!” She called. Ruby watched the two stagger out the door and sighed. Today did not go as expected. She hung her head, at least she didn’t have to lie to Yang anymore. Yay? Was it worth involving her impulsive sister into this whole mess though?

A door creaked open, and Cinder walked back through. She looked around at the broken stool and wood splinters spread across the floor, “They’re all gone? Good. C‘mon let’s split before Junior gets back. He always gets annoying when collateral damage occurs. You want to meet Emerald? Might as well get one more person wrapped around your finger.”

Ruby let out a tired sigh and clambered up from the floor, Cinder’s tone was questioning, but the way she was blocking the door brooked no room for arguments.

 

“So you’re the brat the Mercury runs his mouth about. Funny, they’re usually cuter.”

A tall girl with green hair, was it ironic, was it natural, glared down at Ruby, flicking her weapon blades menacingly.

Cinder once again had disappeared into a back bedroom with nothing more than a “Play nice.”

Ruby nervously smiled, “I like your pajamas?”

Emerald looked down at her fuzzy pants covered with cute bears, “Yeah. I do too. That’s why I’m wearing them.”

The ‘in my home, which you’re in’ was heavily implied.

Ruby nervously glanced around, avoiding Emerald’s piercing gaze. This was more than silence, this was life threateningly suffocatingly awkward.

“Is that your weapon?” Ruby could have slapped herself at the stupid question.

Emerald’s eyes lit up, “Yes. Do you like to fight? Do you want to fight right now?”

Ruby nervously laughed, “Its kind of at school and I don’t think I can retrieve it inconspicuously”

She narrowed her eyes again, “You’re here without a weapon? Follow me.”

Slamming a fist on a bookshelf stuffed with video games, Emerald shuffled through the opening it slid aside to create and Ruby stared at the stockpile of specialized weapons revealed.

“We need to get you something small that you can always have on you. You can’t be weaponless in today’s society. Dangerous people are out there.”

Ruby robotically nodded as her mouth watered, so many weapons. There were a few that she could improve on, but a lot of them she didn’t even know where to begin with.

Naturally she gravitated towards the tall two handed weapons section, only to be grasped and pulled back sharply by the back of her shirt. With a growled, “I said small” Ruby was redirected towards the weapons that could fit in one hand, or the palm of her hand as some were.

She glanced through the array of handguns, landing on one that was small and round, and appeared more like a chrome child’s toy than a gun.

She reached for it, almost curling her fingers around it when her hand was slapped smartly.

She turned to look at Emerald, that familiar frustration bubbling up, when she found the girl had paled three shades and her eyes blown wide, “That’s the noisy cricket. Be careful with it! It unloads pure red dust. Very temperamental.”

Ruby grinned, “Sounds like the thing for me!” And before Emerald could hit her again, picked it up and jokingly aimed it at the wall.

“Put that thing in its holster if you really want it, then put it away so that I can slap you!”

She looked at the other girl’s muscled forearms, “Yeah I think I’m holding this thing till the end of time.”

“It’ll be the end of your time soon!”

Cinder poked her head in, “Oh good, you kids are getting along.”

**Author's Note:**

> First Rosewick, yeah! This came from me thinking that as good as she is, how could a 15 year old come away completely unscathed? Well, it doesn't hurt to have a helpful criminal.


End file.
